101 Morse Street Watertown, MA 02472 (617) 926-0491 www.der.org
DEAD BIRDSby Robert Gardner
83 min, 1964
Dead Birds is a film about the Dani, a people dwelling in the
Grand Valley of the Baliem high in the mountains of West Irian,
West New Guinea. Shot in 1961, Robert Gardner captures
the elaborate system of intertribal warfare and revenge that
dominated the identity of the Dani people. This is a special
edition 2-disc DVD of the re-mastered film with a multitude of
extra features.
STORI TUMBUNA: ANCESTORS' TALES by Paul Wolffram
89 min, 2011
In 2001, cultural researcher, Paul Wolffram traveled to an
isolated Papua New Guinea community, where he lived and
worked for over two years among the Lak People. Conceived
as an opportunity for the Lak to tell their own stories in
their way, Stori Tumbuna takes its structure from traditional
mythologies of the region and presents a collaborative account
privileging the Lak point of view and ethos.
THE HUNTERSby John Marshall
72 min, 1957
This classic anthropological film follows the hunt of a giraffe
by four men over a five-day period. The film was shot on the
third joint Smithsonian/Harvard-Peabody sponsored Marshall
family expedition to Africa to study Ju/’hoansi, one of the few
surviving hunter-gatherer groups. This is John Marshall’s first
feature length film and the encyclopedic value of this footage of
!Kung life is unequaled by any other body of ethnographic film.
FOREST OF BLISSby Robert Gardner
90 min, 1986
Forest of Bliss documents daily life in Benares, India’s most
holy city. The film attempts to give the viewer a wholly
authentic sense of participation in the experiences examined
by the film. This visually stunning re-mastered DVD includes
Looking at Forest of Bliss with Robert Gardner and Stan
Brakhage as well as a photo gallery featuring journal entries
read by Robert Gardner.
A KALAHARI FAMILY a five-part series
by John Marshall
360 min, 1951-2001
A Kalahari Family, the seminal work of John Marshall, is a five-
part series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Ju/’hoansi
of Southern Africa. These once independent hunter-gatherers
experience dispossession, confinement to a homeland, and
the chaos of war. Then, as hope for Namibian independence
and the end of apartheid grows, Ju/’hoansi fight to establish
farming communities and reclaim their traditional lands. The
series challenges stereotypes of “primitive Bushmen.”
BITTER ROOTS: THE ENDSOF A KALAHARI MYTH
by Adrian Strong
71 min, 2010
Bitter Roots: The Ends of a Kalahari Myth is set in Nyae-Nyae,
a region of Namibia located in Southern Africa’s Kalahari
desert, the traditional home of the Ju/’hoansi. It updates
the ethnographic film record begun in the 1950s by John K.
Marshall. Shot in 2007, the film observes the erosion of a
community-led development process and the current problems
facing the Ju/’hoansi.
ANTHROPOLOGY 101
THESE FILMS AND MORE AVAILABLE AT: www.DER.ORG
FRANz BOAS/ODYSSEYby T.W. Timreck
59 min, 1980
A portrait of “the father of American Anthropology.” It was
in the Pacific Northwest that Boas made repeated field trips
at the turn of the century to work among the Kwakiut’l.
Reflections and anecdotes by scholars, former students of
Boas, and the Kwakiut’l themselves are interwoven with Boas’
own words taken from journals, letters, and other writings, to
tell the story of this remarkable man.
MARGARET MEAD:TAKING NOTEby Ann Peck
59 min, 1981
When Margaret Mead died in 1978 she was one of American
anthropology’s most popular and public figures. Produced as
part of the Odyssey series, this film interweaves interviews
held shortly before Mead’s death, old family and field
photographs, and conversations with a variety of her friends,
family, and former students to portray both her personal history
and intellectual contribution to the field of anthropology.
SECRETS OF THE TRIBEby José Padilha
94 min, 2010
The field of anthropology goes under the magnifying
glass in this fiery investigation of the seminal research on
Yanomamo Indians. In the 1960s and ‘70s, a steady stream
of anthropologists filed into the Amazon Basin to observe
this “Virgin” society untouched by modern life. Thirty years
later, the events surrounding this infiltration have become a
scandalous tale of academic ethics and infighting.
PAPA BILONG CHIMBUby Verena Thomas
54 min, 2008
In 1937 a young missionary, Father John Nilles, arrived in the
highlands of Papua New Guinea. There he would stay for the
next 54 years, living with the people of Chimbu, learning their
language and way of life, and introducing them to his God and
Western culture. More than just a priest, he would become an
anthropologist, linguist, politician, and clan leader.
UNITY THROUGH CULTURE by Christian Suhr
and Ton Otto
59 min, 2011
Baluan Island native, Soanin Kilangit, is determined to unite
the Baluan people and attract tourism through the revival
of traditional practices on his South Pacific Island. Kilangit
organizes the largest cultural festival ever held on the island,
but some leaders argue that Baluan never had its own
culture. A struggle to define the past, present, and future of
Baluan traditions erupts in this film about authenticity and the
meaning of culture.
FRAMING THE OTHERby Ilja Kok
and Willem Timmers
25 min, 2011
The elaborate body ornamentation of the Mursi women has
spawned a new wave of tourism in Southern Ethiopia. Each
year, hundreds of tourists visit the Mursi, and posing for
camera-toting Westerners has become their main source of
income. By intercutting the dialogues of a Mursi woman and
a tourist, this film creates an intimate portrayal of a tourist
encounter, and raises profound questions about ethics, tourism,
authenticity, and cultural identity.
101 Morse Street Watertown, MA 02472 (617) 926-0491 www.der.org
ANTHROPOLOGY 101
THESE FILMS AND MORE AVAILABLE AT: www.DER.ORG
NUHONIYEH: OUR STORYBy Mary Code and Allen Code
55 min, 1993
This powerful film produced from a Native perspective has
won many awards in recognition of its exploration of the history
and current circumstances of the Sayisi Dene, a people of
the ecological and cultural borderlands between tundra and
forest in Canada. The film provides an excellent introduction
to complex issues of politics, land rights, cultural ecology
and processes of cultural destruction and rebirth that are of
widespread concern in the circumpolar Artic.
ONKA'S BIG MOKAby Charlie Nairn
59 min, 1980
Ongka is a “bigman,” a leader of a Kwelka tribe in New Guinea
where a man’s authority and prestige are derived in large part
by his ability to organize a lavish “moka,” or gift giving. The
“moka” is an elaborate system of gifts, which forges alliances
and maintains peace among the tribes. This film closely
chronicles this celebration, including the preparations, and
reveals a fascinating portrait of Ongka himself.
wHOSE IS THIS SONG?by Adela Peeva
70 Min, 2003
In her search for the true origins of a haunting melody, the
filmmaker travels to Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Albania,
Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. The trip is filled with humor,
suspense, tragedy, and surprise as each country’s citizens
passionately claim the song to be theirs. In a region besieged
by ethnic hatred and war, what begins as a light-hearted
investigation ends as a socio-historical exploration of the deep
misunderstanding between Balkan peoples.
FIRST CONTACTby Bob Connolly
and Robin Anderson
54 min, 1983
This is the classic film of cultural confrontation that is as
compelling today as when it was first released over 20 years
ago. When Columbus and Cortez ventured into the New
World there was no camera to record the drama of this first
encounter. But, in 1930, when the Leahy brothers penetrated
the interior of New Guinea in search of gold, they carried a
movie camera, capturing their unexpected confrontation.
THE AX FIGHT by Timothy Asch
and Napoleon Chagnon
30 min, 1975
The Ax Fight is a classic anthropological film that operates on
several levels. At once, this film plunges the viewer into the
problems of Yanomamo kinship, alliance, and village fission;
of violence and conflict resolution. It also raises questions
about how anthropologists and filmmakers translate their
experience into meaningful words and coherent, moving
images. The Ax Fight was restored by the National Film
Preservation Foundation.
DADI’S FAMILYby Michael Camerini
and Rina Gill
58 min, 1981
Dadi is the grandmother, or, as she explains, the “manager”
of an extended family living in the Haryana region of Northern
India. This film explores the extended family and its problems
and is a strong comment on the lives of women in 1980’s
rural India. Dadi’s Family spans the thinking of two different
generations and shows the struggle between them to commit
to their different interpretations of an ideal family life.
101 Morse Street Watertown, MA 02472 (617) 926-0491 www.der.org
ANTHROPOLOGY 101
THESE FILMS AND MORE AVAILABLE AT: www.DER.ORG
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